So there we were, minding our own business, enjoying a summer afternoon and burning our Christmas tree when all of a sudden, the authorities arrive. By authorities, I mean a very large and shiny fire truck and a posse of very kind firefighters with clipboards. Apparently, as we discovered, you're not allowed to burn your Christmas tree here or other assorted yard waste within city limits. Let this be a lesson to other citizens, like us, who just turfed their dried out Christmas tree off their back decks rather than finding a Boy Scout troop to collect it for them. While my husband talked with the firefighters, my son and I roasted marshmallows on our small, small backyard fire.
Although I readily admit that we were in the wrong and that ignorance of the law is not a justifiable excuse, I have a problem with how this played out. You see, the fire department were notified of our fiery flagrant disregard of city bylaws (unknowingly) because one of our neighbours narced on us. Rather than letting us know, in person, that the smoke was bothering them and that we weren't allowed to burn our Christmas tree, they called the fire department to come and tell us off. The firefighters that came to our house were awesome and exceptionally polite and we really respect the job that they do however, an entire giant truck with a full crew was dispatched to our little backyard fire with our chopped-up tree. If my house were burning down, I would hate to discover that a fire crew was late because they were dealing with a Christmas tree hot dog party. The tree was dry, chopped into small pieces and only a few boughs of needles were burned. These boughs were the cause of a brief smoky episode after the wind changed which presumably, caused the neighbour to report us. It's not like we were burning a plastic tree.
I have already admitted that we were in the wrong but was it really necessary to report us? Could not a neighbourly shout out over the fence in the style of Wilson suffice instead? "Hey Neighbour! It's really smoky and I don't think you can burn green wood. Mind giving us a heads up so we can close our windows?" We would have apologized and then everything would have been fine in the neighbourhood. Instead, now we're eyeballing our neighbours trying to figure out who it was that reported us and who is making us feel like we are living in a police state.
It's a shame that now our annual backyard barbeques have been tainted.
